Happy Now

My friends and I laughed from start to finish with this superb, witty black comedy - the many original characters were well played, yes there were a couple of holes in the plot (how do you escape from the boot of a centrally locked car?) but, hey, I went to be entertained and I was.

We saw this at the Welsh Film Festival - why on earth has it not yet been distributed? We want to see it again to remind ourselves of all those great one-liners.

I saw HAPPY NOW on BBC2 on Saturday March 13th. I just stumbled upon it. I had never heard of it before. The fact that it was set in Wales caught my attention initially. Within minutes, I found myself totally gripped by the film. It was such a great story and was very well written and acted, by a very impressive cast. The cinematography was absolutely breathtaking. It really was a feast for the eyes. I also really enjoyed the score. It's such a shame that the film appears not to have had a UK release and also doesn't appear to be available on DVD. How can this be, when so many really lousy UK films get released each year? I thoroughly recommend this film. It really is a little-known gem.

After Sara Sugarman and Darren Ripley you might have thought that SGRIN and The Welsh Arts Council would have had enough of camp, self effacing comedians - but no, despite its chocolate box wrapping, Phillipa Cousins debut effort fails to raise many laughs and succeeds in compounding negative welsh stereotypes. I suppose the success of Kevin Allen's cult hit Twin Town started this movement but I wish it would end, quickly.

On a more positive note, there are many promising elements in Happy Now. The locations have been well chosen and atmospherically photographed in cinemascope by Richard Greatrex. The sound design and music are also noticeably good.

In fact the production values as a whole make Happy Now feel like Hollywood. The strongest scenes include the cult sacrifice of a cat and the engagement of a local black magician to 'disappear' the films young protagonist . If only Happy Now had dropped its knowing self parody and tackled more seriously the darker ingredients of its story it might well have achieved its ambition be 'a Welsh Twin Peaks'.

This movie unjustly suffers mostly from clichés heaped upon it.

It's a Welsh Twin Peaks parody, they say. Too Welsh to be funny - not enough Twin Peaks to work in the end.

In short: This movie is a victim of false expectations.

Yes, there are certain similarities if one spends the whole time comparing, but that does this movie great injustice. The few 'blatant' takes on Welsh culture clichés take NOTHING away from its positive charme - except for nit-picking Welsh viewers, perhaps. To 'foreign' viewers it's a convincing fresco of provincial life, as well as a Chabrol movie seems to non-French viewers. The Twin Peaks connection exists only on a formalistic plane.

Call me stupid, but I feel that this has a far more honest and less pretentious appeal than said cult hyper-soap. Give it a chance. It's more than the sum of your pre-conceptions.

* Schogger13

The picture is set in a little town from North Wales, where a vagrant named Tin man(Om Puri) is wrongly framed of murdering. Years later, a newcomer local policeman(Ioan Gruffud) investigates the deeds .When appears a local woman named Tina Trent(Susan Lynch) just returned, along with her daughter(Emmy Rossum) in the little place. The daughter bears a remarkable resemblance with the disappeared girl. As suspects are Marcus(Paddy Considine)and his friend(Richard Coyle). The policeman is helped by the local barber(Robert Pugh), killing girl's father, and the Tin man.

This agreeable movie displays suspense, thrills, Welsh costumes, mystery and enjoyable performances. Main casting is frankly well, with actors today making American career, such as Ioan Gruffud (Arthur) as intelligent local policeman, Emmy Rossum(Phantom of Opera) in a double role as shy adolescent and Susan Lynch as attractive mother. Furthermore, excellent secondary cast as the nasties Paddy Considine and Richard Coyle . Glamorous cinematography by Richard Greatex(Flawless, Detonator,Chaos, A knight's tale). Atmospheric musical score by Dario Marianelli(V for vendetta, Brothers Grimm, Shooting dogs, Pride and prejudice). The motion picture is well directed by Philippe Cousins in his first and only movie, though previously won a Bafta prize for TV. Rating : Acceptable and passable.